Trump Says Arrest of Green Card Holder for Pro-Palestine Activism Is First of Many to Come

President Trump on Monday vowed that the arrest of a green card holder over his involvement in protests critical of Israel was the first of “many to come” as civil liberties groups are pushing back against the campaign that has chilling implications for the First Amendment.

Over the weekend, Mahmoud Khalil, a recent Columbia grad student who served as a spokesman for student activists seeking the university’s divestment from Israel, was detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents in his university-owned apartment.

For now, a federal judge is preventing Khalil from being deported. “To preserve the Court’s jurisdiction pending a ruling on the petition, Petitioner shall not be removed from the United States unless and until the Court orders otherwise,” Judge Jesse Furman of the Southern District of New York said in a court order in response to a petition filed by Khalil.